Scaly visitors at Jackal’s Den

This morning Cleo chased this fellow up a tree just outside my bedroom cottage.

The rock monitor (Varanus albigularis), also called the legavaan or white-throated monitor, is a species of monitor lizard found in southern Africa. It is the second longest lizard found on the continent of Africa and the heaviest bodied. They reach 2 meters  in length, although this fellow was only about 1 meter long.  I love seeing them so I need to find a way to stop Cleo going a little berserk when they come to visit.

On another scaly matter, we have a resident black mamba that has decided to become our gate guard.  It has been spotted on quite a few occasions now, about 5 meters outside of our main reserve gate. We are being very, very careful now when we alight from our vehicles to open and close the gate.  Although we use torches at night, it does feel a little creepy when it’s dark and I try to get back in my car quite fast.

I snapped a picture of his tail yesterday afternoon.

My apologies for the poor quality of the picture – I had to take it fast before he/she moved off and it was taken through my dirty windscreen.

Here is some information from Wikipedia which may explain why we get a little nervous of him.

The black mamba (Dendroaspis polylepis), also called the common black mamba or black-mouthed mamba, is the longest venomous snake in Africa, averaging around 2.5 to 3.2 meters (8.2 to 10 ft) in length, and sometimes growing to lengths of 4.45 meters (14.6 ft). Its name is derived from the black colouration inside the mouth rather than the actual colour of its scales which varies from dull yellowish-green to a gun-metal grey. It is the fastest snake in the world, capable of moving at 4.32 to 5.4 metres per second (16–20 km/h, 10–12 mph). It is a notorious snake that’s feared throughout the world. It has a reputation for being very aggressive and highly venomous. Many herpetologists have cited this species as both the world’s deadliest and most aggressive, noting a tendency to attack without provocation. They are among the world’s ten most venomous land snakes, and when threatened or cornered they become fiercely aggressive, which is why they are given mythical status.

Although it would much rather avoid confrontation and flee from any perceived threat, the black mamba can be extremely aggressive if badgered long and hard enough, during breeding season, when defending territory or an egg nest, or if cornered with no escape, it will stand its ground and display fearsome tenacity and explosive aggression while hissing loudly and striking repeatedly. No other snake in the continent is as loathed, and yet respected and feared at the same time.

The black mamba is known to be capable of reaching speeds of around 20 kilometers per hour (12 mph), traveling with up to a third of its body raised off the ground.

Although only 10 to 15 mg of it’s venom is deadly to a human adult, its bite delivers about 100–120 mg of venom on average,but they can deliver up to over 400 mg of venom in a single bite. Its bite is often called “the kiss of death” because before antivenom was widely available, the mortality rate from a bite was 100%. Severe black mamba envenomation can potentially kill a human within 20 minutes or less depending on the nature of the bite and the area bitten, but death usually occurs after 30–60 minutes on average, sometimes taking up to three hours. British wildlife enthusiast Nathan Layton was bitten in Hoedspruit, a small town near Kruger National Park, by a juvenile black mamba and died in less than 30 minutes after being bitten.

 

If he does not move away in the next few weeks we will probably have him relocated to a more remote area of the farm.

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Trouble in paradise….

The Bean is currently writing her final school exams so our stress levels are a little high here in paradise.  Last week she came to show me a spot on her leg where she had found a tick.  We have been watching the bite site closely as a blue-black spot in the middle of the site is indicative of tick bite fever.  

Image via Wikipedia

Today when I collected her from school after she wrote an exam she was walking with a slight limp and told me her leg muscles were a bit achy.  I asked her to show me her bite and the tell-tale blue-black mark had appeared.  We went directly to our local GP who said after an examination that her one lymph node was already inflamed and that it is almost guaranteed that she has tick bite fever albeit in the very early stages.  He prescribed antibiotics and pain killers for her which we started right away.

I am so worried that this will affect her studies and exams as she is trying really hard for good marks to get into university. I hope that because we have caught it early we will be able to keep her symptoms to a minimum.

Here is a little more information on the disease for those of you who may be interested. 

(summarised from an article on Health24.co.za)

Tick bite fever

What is tick bite fever?

Tick bite fever (rickettsia) is caused by a bacterial infection transmitted by ticks. This condition occurs in many areas of the world and is often known by a variety of names (see table below).

What causes tick bite fever?

The organism that causes tick bite fever belongs to the Rickettsial family of bacteria. As can be seen from the table, there are a number of different species of Rickettsias.

These organisms are relatively small and are only able to survive inside cells. They are found in certain wild and domestic animals, and ticks acquire the organisms when they feed on these animals.

When the tick bites a human, the bacterium is transmitted in the saliva. 

In various parts of the world, different species of tick and Rickettsia are involved in causing tick-bite fever, and these forms of the disease are also given different names.

Infection	Organism	Location	Other names
Rocky Mountain spotted fever	R. ricketsii	USA
Boutonneuse	R. conorii	Africa, Meditteranean, India	Marseilles fever, Mediterranean spotted fever, African tick bite fever.
Queensland tick typhus	R.australis	Australia
North Asian tick typhus	R. sibirica	Siberia, Mongolia

In South Africa, the cause of tick bite fever is either R. conorii , or R. africae.

How do you get tick bite fever?

The organisms are transmitted in the saliva of an infected tick when it bites humans. Being bitten by ticks usually occurs in rural or wilderness areas i.e. when you are out camping, hiking in long grass etc. 

Symptoms and signs of tick bite fever

If you get bitten by an infected tick, the incubation period (the period between being infected and displaying symptoms) is about five to seven days. Symptoms can vary, depending partly on the organism involved. Your age and underlying health may also influence the severity of the infection.

Typical features may include the presence of a black mark where the bite occurred, and fever, severe headache and a rash. The black mark at the site of the tick bite is called an eschar . It may look something like a spider bite. The eschars can be single or multiple and can sometimes be very difficult to find. The eschar usually appears once the fever appears, as does the headache and malaise (general feeling of ill-health). Lymph nodes near the eschar may be enlarged.

A rash is usually, but not always, a feature of tick bite fever (it is supposedly less likely to occur in someone infected by R. africae), but when it is present, it consists of small red marks on the skin, sometimes raised slightly above the surface. It typically starts on the limbs and spreads to the trunk, and can involve the entire body, including the palms of the hands and soles of the feet.

What is the outcome of tick bite fever?

African tick bite fever is usually mild, and death and serious complications are very uncommon. This is in contrast to Rocky Mountain spotted fever, which is usually a more severe illness. 

The presence of the rash and an eschar is a very strong diagnostic sign for tick bite fever. 

How is tick bite fever treated?

Some forms of tick bite fever are fairly mild and self-limiting – people may get better on their own without specific treatment. This can take up to two weeks however, and treatment with an antibiotic can shorten the duration of symptoms and reduce the chance of a serious side-effect. 

Can tick bite fever be prevented?

The easiest may to prevent tick bite fever is to avoid being bitten by ticks. Avoiding rural or wilderness areas where ticks are likely to occur is one way to achieve this, but not a great solution if you enjoy hiking and camping. Other measures are generally common-sense, such as wearing insect repellents and long trousers and sleeves. There is no vaccine against tick bite fever, and taking prophylactic antibiotics (as one does for malaria) has never been shown to be effective or necessary.

New additions to the farm

Late yesterday afternoon we took delivery of 6 nyala ( one male, two female and three babies) and 4 ostriches (near adults – sexes still to be determined when they get their adult plumage).

I was there to capture the moment.

I hope they had a good first night in our reserve.  I’m off to see if I can find them and see how they are doing.

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Still wondering?

Thanks to everyone who took a shot at answering Fridays question.  As you can see in the comments of that post we had quite a few rather inventive folk.

This hole gives away many secrets if you know what to look for.  Often you can see scratchings at holes like these and a little fan of sand which are not clear in this photo.  Besides that, the first biggest clue is the little white and black rings lying around the mouth of the hole (visible in the right hand picture).  These are rings from devoured millipedes.  The creature that lives in the hole just LOVES eating millipedes.

The final and easiest clue is the shape of the hole itself.  An oval hole with a rounded bottom and a wavy top.

This is the home of a ………  scorpion.

Well done to  Tara and OneStonedCrow.

Both of you drop me a line at hills(dot)jackie(at)gmail(dot)com with your postal addresses and I’ll send you a little something from our area.

Scorpions

We have  over 160 species of scorpion in South Africa.

Out of all our scorpions, only 3 have even caused human fatalities. On average 8 to 12 people die from scorpion stings annually. Their strong neurotoxic venom affects the nervous system and causes heart palpitations, respiratory problems and slurred speech, intense pain and hyper sensitivity. We also have the world least venomous scorpion and coincidently the world longest. These giants attain lengths of over 21cm but their venom causes no more than a pin prick.

These amazing creatures can be found sheltering under rocks, logs, they make burrows and even live in trees. Their secretive nature and behaviours means that you probably do not know that there are scorpions around you, but they are there.  Some species can live without food or water for more than a year. During harsh times they simply wait it out. When the good times return, they emerge and carry on.

 

 

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Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill

The Southern yellow-billed Hornbill is one of my favorite local birds.  They are noisy, cheeky and have so much character – great birds to watch for hours on end.  In our area, and especially in the Kruger National Park, they are very common and are often seen pinching food from unwary tourists.  We have one mating pair that live close to our cottages and although they don’t come too close, I hear them often.

The Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill (Tockus leucomelas) is a Hornbill found in Southern Africa. It is a medium sized bird, with length between 48 to 60 cm, characterized by a long yellow beak with a casque (casque reduced in the female). The skin around the eyes and in the malar stripe is pinkish. The related Eastern Yellow-billed Hornbill from north-eastern Africa has blackish skin around the eyes.

They have a white belly, grey neck, and black back with abundant white spots and stripes. They feed mainly on the ground, where they forage for seeds, small insects, spiders and scorpions. Termites and ants are a preferred food source in the dry season.

Females lay 3 to 4 white eggs in their nest cavities and incubate them for about 25 days. While sitting on her eggs the female hornbill is closed into the nest by the male using mud to close the nest hole.  The male then brings food to the female and feeds her through a tiny slit that he leaves open. Juveniles take about 45 days to mature.

This hornbill is a common, widespread resident of the dry thorn fields and broad-leafed woodlands. Frequently they can be sighted along roads.

Last night at art group I decided to start a new painting and chose this bird to paint. I have started the background with acrylic and plan to finish off the finer details in oils.  Again you will be able to follow me step by step.

A stick-y situation

Meet bactrododema tiaratum. Fred was so uninterested…..

With a body length of 163 mm or 295mm taking outstretched legs into account (males) and between 193mm and 226mm for females, this stick insect is the longest species in South Africa.

About 3000 stick insects are known worldwide and captivate because of their unique camouflage ability, often overlooked in gardens as being just sticks or twigs. However, a little torch-light at night reveals a hidden world as these nocturnal creatures move about feeding on plant matter. Leaf insects, so-called because they resemble broad leaves, are grouped in the same order as stick insects, Phasmida, however only about 30 species of the total 3000 are leaf insects.

Giant stick insects are particularly interesting because of their size and weight and the fact that some of them can fly with their relatively small wings. The flight of these insects may be regarded as one of the wonders of aerodynamics, although often it is only a downward gliding flight. Stick insects generally move very slowly and the large ones tend to stay high up in trees. For this reason, they need to be good at conserving water, and need special blood or haemolymph to do this. Another interesting fact is that parthenogenesis is common in some genera and males are completely unknown in some species. Put simply, it means that females can lay viable eggs in the absence of a male.

info from: http://www.scienceinafrica.co.za

Frog in your throat?

On Saturday we saw, or rather heard this snake catch a frog.  The poor frog squealed loudly for a second before he was swallowed whole. In the picture you can see that the snake has already swallowed quite a bit but there is still a foot (or other part)  sticking out of his mouth.

It is a green spotted bush snake, the very same type as the one we dealt with last summer.  If you are a long time reader you’ll remember that we first thought it was a boomslang when The Bean and I chased it around our house. Read Great snakes to hear more about that adventure.  After I published that post we were told that it was not a boomslang but a green spotted bush snake which I corrected in the following post – Mistaken identity?

The spotted bush snake (Philothamnus semivariegatus)

This snake can be found in variable colours, but most of the time bright green to darker green above. As you can see in this photo, the snake has spots or crossbars on the front half of the body. These spots or crossbars sometimes become very faint. The back half of the body is usually plain. The snake’s belly is yellowish to greenish-white and has distinctive keeled ventral scales which helps this snake to climb. Some specimens have bronze or brownish colouring on the dorsal parts and some have a bluish tint, but most are green. Adults can reach lengths of up to 1,3 meters. The spotted bush snake has a round black pupil with an orange iris. This is a diurnal snake and has a very unusual coloured tongue which is bright blue with a black tip.

It is an excellent climber and can be found in bushes, trees, on walls or even gliding in between the cracks of bricks. When this snake is disturbed, it will move away fast and in short bursts to the nearest cover. If it is cornered or when it turns defensive, it will inflate its neck like some other snakes and the blue skin in between the scales will be visible. This makes it look more dangerous, almost like a Boomslang. It bites readily if you try to catch it. (Now you tell me!)

This snake is almost always mistaken for a Boomslang. Although there are many differences, they both can be seen in trees and both are green. The spotted bush snake is harmless to humans, but often killed by us, because of this confusion.

Their main enemies are cats, predatory birds and other snakes, as well as humansand it mainly feeds on geckos, but frogs and chameleons are also taken.

 

The knob thorns are flowering

And that means that summer is almost upon us.  My parents came to spend the weekend with us and the temperatures were in the low 30′s, which is still bearable.  Over the three days they were here, we watched bare trees turn green or at least start to in some cases.  Within the next week I will have lovely green trees laying shade over the pool. Below you can see the beginnings of greeness – wait…whats that behind the tree?

Can you see the giraffe in the background?

A large percentage of the trees in our area are acacias.  The knob thorn being one of them.  At this time of the year they stand out from the surrounding bush with their light yellow flowers.

Flowering Knob Thorn tree

Acacias – Thorn trees of Africa

There are few more striking symbols of Africa than a thorn tree – its gnarled branches, graceful form, jagged thorns and abundant blooms, in many ways reflecting the paradoxes of the continent.

Acacias are the dominant woody plants over much of sub-Saharan Africa. There are about 700 species in Africa, South America, India and Australia. All belong to the Family Mimosaceae.

African savannahs experience hot and often dry conditions, so plants must find ways of retaining moisture. The way in which acacias have evolved to do this, is to have their leaves divided into dozens of tiny leaflets which can be held horizontally to capture sunlight or vertically to reduce transpiration.  Acacia foliage is sought after by many browsing animals – from giraffe to beetles – and here too it helps for them to be divided, as the tiny leaflets left behind by the browsers can continue to perform their vital photosynthesis function.

Many acacias have exaggerated umbrella-shaped crowns which enable the tree to capture the maximum amount of sunlight, with the smallest possible leaves. Some species have deep tap-root systems, allowing them to survive in semi-arid terrain along dry watercourses (they tap into the water table) while others have shallow but extensive splayed root systems to capture limited rainfall in dryer areas. The well-known Fever Tree which grows along lake fringes and on poorly drained clay soils also has a shallow root system, in order to avoid water logging.

Fever trees

Acacias belong to the group of pod-bearing plants known as legumes and have the remarkable ability to enhance soil fertility. The activity of microbes associated with roots of acacias  fixes nitrogen to soil particles and so improves fertility.

Just about all parts of an acacia tree are edible to one kind of animal or another, and in many parts of Africa their small leaves provide the only greenery in the dry season, so are bound to be eaten. The roots may be sought after by porcupines, the tiny leaflets by macro- and micro-herbivores, the sticky sap by bush babies, the flower nectar by bees and butterflies, the seeds by beetles, and the stringy bark by elephant.

Acacia leaves and thorns

With so many creatures making a living from their growth efforts, it is no wonder that acacias have evolved some of the most effective and cunning defences in the plant kingdom. Acacia thorns may be straight or hooked depending upon the species  and these are capable of keeping all but the largest browsers at bay.  Giraffe, however, have leathery tongues which feel no apparent pain against either hooked or straight thorns. To combat large mammalian browsers some acacia trees – such as the Knob Thorn – release chemicals in the form of toxic tannins which render the leaflets unpalatable and cause giraffe or kudu to move on to another tree. To reduce the impact of browsing insects, some acacia species have developed an association with biting ants – ant-plant mutualism – which is one of the most intriguing relationships in the natural world.

The wood of many acacia trees is renowned for its excellent fuel properties and can also produce good charcoal. Since many African people still rely on wood as fuel for cooking and heating it is essential that acacia woodlands are managed effectively in order that the trees do not disappear altogether.

Acacia sap or gum is another important product and the Sweet Thorn and Scented Thorn produce copious amounts which can be used as a glue. “Gum Arabic” was originally derived from the Three-hook Thorn.

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